The ideal procedure for only-one-scan archiving of neg film

[Gregory C]

hi.

I'm getting a couple of new 1TB SATA drives (they're so much more affordable now) which means that I'll have plenty of room to scan and archive all of our film at the best resolution offered by our Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED. That said, I'm looking for the ideal procedure.

I'm considering scanning the film at maximum resolution and saving to HDRi scan files which could be converted to everyday jpeg anytime with SilverFast HDR. My biggest query (other than when will HDRi and iSRD be supported with the 4000ED) regards Negafix. Do I need to apply Negafix during scanning with SF Ai, or can I apply it later via SF HDR?

I would prefer to be able to apply Negafix later with SF HDR because the negafix profiles may change or I may discover alternate profiles which deliver superior results. Is it possible to apply Negafix later with SF HDR?

Notes:

• I have no idea which brand/version much of our film is. It's not even recorded on the film itself.
• Because the Coolscan's ability to locate the edge of frames within continuous neg film strips/rolls is entirely unreliable, all of our neg film has been mounted.
• I would prefer to run batch scans via the SF-210 slide feeder; i.e., there would probably be no/minimum adjustments made during the scanning stage, only during the HDR stage.

cheers,
Gregory

Mac Pro 2x2.8GHz 8GB
OS X 10.6 10A394
Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED
Microtek ScanMaker 5700

[LSI_Morales]

Dear Gregory,

Actually the idea of scanning HDR or HDRi files is to create unmodified RAW files to be later processed in SilverFast HDR. If you select a NegaFix profile during your scans, this profile might be embeded into the end file, however it does not really modify the file, you can later change the NegaFix profile that fits best to your motive and picture.
The embeded color profiles in HDR files are information contained within the RAW file that aids users to find their settings later in HDR but they do not force the file to be processed with that color profile or NegaFix film type.

You should not have any troubles with your workflow because it matches exactly the workflow of SilverFast Archive.

Cheers

[Gregory C]

Dear Alejandro,

that's great to hear although I didn't see Negafix listed in SF HDR's feature set.

do you know if HDRi will be supported with the 4000ED soon?

cheers,
Gregory

[LSI_Morales]

Dear Gregory,

NegaFix is included in SilverFast HDR for years now. Of course it is also a supported for your scanner model.
You can download the Demo version of HDR to check its features before spending the money in any purchase.

Cheers